Trivia

It's possible that Rich Moore tried to reference the changes when a game is being released internationally, by showing Sakura as a Japanese.

Fans first thought that she was a redesign for Candlehead until the first trailer where we can see that both Candlehead and Sakura appear where she replaces Minty Zaki. However Sakura doesn't have recolors so that technically means Minty Zaki is the recolor of either Sticky or Torvald.

In one of the trailers, the scene where they destroy the Likkity Split, Minty Zaki is seen instead of Minty Sakura. This, of course, means that the animators had to change all of the scenes with Minty Zaki and Sakura before the movie got released in Japan.

Besides the Japanese version of the movie, Sakura also appears in the Japanese PC adaption of Sugar Rush.

She appears to be wearing a Kimono-style clothing, which may relate to why she is the Japanese version of Minty Zaki.